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ADMINISTER → RECLAIM — a statistics machine gets a new brief
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52.5227, 13.4183
On arrival
Approach from Alexanderplatz and stop where the long slabs and the Karl-Marx-Allee edge of the complex can be read together without entering the construction areas.
Look closer
Look for the repetitive structural grid and long horizontal bands: the administrative scale is visible before you know what any individual room did.
First job: count and administer a state. New brief: make an oversized state office useful to a different city.
Start with a building whose scale makes bureaucracy physical. Haus der Statistik went up between 1968 and 1970 as a reinforced-concrete skeleton complex for the GDR's central statistics administration. It is easy to read the slabs as a fossil of a vanished state, but that misses the interesting part. After reunification the complex passed into federal ownership, stood empty from 2008, and was acquired by Berlin in 2017. Its next life is being built around public administration, culture, education, social uses and housing through a cooperative model. The concrete frame stayed. The institution, ownership and idea of who the building is for all changed.
Accessibility at this stop
Exterior public-space stop. Major redevelopment works can alter routes and surfaces; do not assume the most direct approach is step-free without current field verification.
These notes describe known conditions at this stop. Urban conditions can change, so assess the situation on site.
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1. ADMINISTER → RECLAIM — a statistics machine gets a new brief
7 stops to complete
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2. SHOW → KEEP SHOWING — the state premiere cinema survives the state
Approx. 0.39 km to the next stop
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